


both me and you are the pages

by Sroloc_Elbisivni



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Inheritance, why warp harry's personality for an au when you can warp the fabric of wizarding society instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 17:03:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18124061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sroloc_Elbisivni/pseuds/Sroloc_Elbisivni
Summary: Uncle Fabian adopted him when he turned nine.The Potters offered to sponsor her two months before her twelfth birthday.Hermione, Ron, politics, and legacies in a world a few steps over.





	both me and you are the pages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hinn_Raven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hinn_Raven/gifts).



> HAPY BIRTHDAY STEPH. YOU ARE ANOTHER YEAR OLDER AND STILL MY FANDOM BIG SIS. HAVE ANOTHER FIC. 
> 
> This is short, and I am sorry, but it's half a gift, anyways. It's an establishing kind of story, because there's absolutely another story in this world where Harry and Ginny end up in an arranged marriage without realizing they've met because in this world Ginny ended up apprenticing to Bill and spending a lot of time in Egypt. But that's not important yet!
> 
> Title from Cloud Cult, 'Through the Agest'.

Uncle Fabian adopted him when he turned nine.

It wasn’t a move-in-leave-home kind of adoption, except for the first week to make sure the wards accepted the transfer of power or whatever it was Uncle Fabian’s solicitor kept droning about. Ron doesn’t really remember much because he’d been distracted by how uncomfortable the chair in the office was, especially because the first new robes he’d ever had were tighter than he expected. The new robes were because Uncle Fabian told Mum that he needed to establish that he was capable of caring for an heir, and Mum had actually listened.

Well, she’d gone white around the lips and at the knuckles where she’d been clutching at the old dress robe of Fred’s she’d been taking in, but she’d eventually agreed. 

It still wasn’t the move-in kind of adoption, and Ron had changed out of the robes as soon as they got back to Uncle Fabian’s flat because he felt like an absolute prat just walking down the streets.

Ron spent a week in the flat, what was formerly forbidden territory, and he and his uncle played chess and went on walks around the mostly Muggle part of town and Ron got permission to look at the big old photo albums when he ran out of comics. 

By the end of the week, Ron had lost twenty-seven games, come within four moves of a draw, been convinced to call the man “Uncle Ian,” and eaten more late-night puddings than Mum is ever allowed to know about.

He’d also learned, from a photograph that he would have thought was of Fred and George if not for the date on the bottom why Uncle Ian never seemed to be able to talk to the twins. 

Oh, and legally he’d become Ronald Bilius Prewett. But that’s not important yet, really.

 

* * *

 

The Potters offered to sponsor her two months before her twelfth birthday.

Hermione knew about Hogwarts, of course, but she also knew how few spots there were, and how notoriously difficult it was to get a scholarship. She tried for one anyway, of course, writing essays and reading everything she could get her hands on at Diagon Alley and the goblin market, but she also looked into apprenticeships. There would have been worse things than working for the magical side of the government, she thought, or the British Library.

But then Lily Evans Potter sent a message to her parents and the next day Dad took the afternoon off so he could take Hermione to a teashop to meet her.

Mum and Dad had refused to say anything because they want to make sure she gets the chance to form her own impressions, so Hermione was practically vibrating with excitement at the order. Lily Evans had been one of Hogwarts’ most distinguished scholarship students. Today, she was a master potioneer and Hermione was sure she’d seen the name in the catalog of titles at the Library’s magical section. Hermione hadn’t been _terribly_ excited about potions before, but she thought she could be, if Ms. Potter wanted to offer her an apprenticeship. Or even just advice. Hermione had her notebook all ready in case it was advice.

It was something else entirely.

They wanted to sponsor her, Ms.— _Lily_ Potter and her husband, because the scholarship placements have increased but the budget hadn’t, so now there were many partially-funded places instead of a few fully-funded places. But the Potters had shares in a potions company that sold all kind of things, and Lily had been a scholarship student once, and she wanted to make sure Hogwarts stayed open for the students who need it.

“But—what do you expect me to _do_?” Hermione had asked, mind whirling as her shining dream came close enough to touch.

“Anything you want,” Lily had told her, and taken a sip of her tea.  

* * *

 

Ron and Hermione have been planning how best to take control in the Ministry together since they were twelve years old, so the fight that follows Hermione’s decision to take a short term apprenticeship under McGonagall after graduation is especially bad.

Harry’s staying out of it. He’s also planning to work in the Ministry, but he has a long and cherished tradition of refusing to be involved in his best friends’ government takeover. Mum’s involved enough for three of him.

Ron is declaring it an absolute betrayal that will set them back by at least three years. Hermione says that it will give her necessary experience and legitimacy before plunging into the political morass.

Harry is, again, _staying out of this_.

It’s such a bad fight that at some point he just decides he’s not talking to either of them about the other until they’re done with it, and doesn’t actually hear about how it gets resolved until after it’s over.

The story, according to Ron’s call, is this.

“ _I ended up at her place in the middle of the afternoon because Uncle Ian’s actually pretty close by and he kicked me out to take a walk because I was driving him mad pacing, and her mum saw me going by and had me in for tea because she hadn’t known I was in the neighborhood, and Hermione found me in the kitchen and asked if I was over myself yet, and I said that if she really wanted to change the plan she should have_ told _me, and she said it wasn’t about the plan and I didn’t have the right to tell her what to do. And I said that it wasn’t trying to tell her what to do if it was something she already planned on doing, and she said she had the right to change her mind, and I wanted to know if that meant she was changing her mind about us, and she told me I was an idiot, and we might be getting engaged, how d’you feel about being best man?”_

Harry doesn’t hang up, but he does thump his head against the wall.

 

* * *

 

**_Extract from Chapter 3 of_ ** **Upon What Meat: The Figures behind Dissolution of Inherited Title in the Wizengamot _, King’s College University Press_. **

_….and although he gained access to government through a family title, Ron Prewett (born Ron Weasley) would go on to be one of the most aggressive reform advocates of the early 21 st century. His efforts, of course, are exceeded by those of Hermione Granger, his wife, who presided as Grand High Mugwump over the corruption trials of various Ministry officials found guilty of selling official positions in order to block the advancement of Muggle-born candidates (see Chapter 5 for more on Granger’s political career). The two reportedly had no official interaction throughout their shared tenure at the Ministry, but internal memos suggest a habit of approaching the same problems from opposing ends…. _


End file.
